Re: Another View of Modern Racing From Bobby Trussell (567 Views)
Posted by:
fkach (IP Logged)
Date: October 02, 2007 04:00PM
This is a very timely post.
I was just about to point out that this year's 3YO crop has been pretty darn sound so far. Curlin and Hard Spun raced in all the Triple Crown races, but are still firing big shots into the late summer and fall. Before the Derby a lot of people were saying that Curlin was rushed too fast in the spring just to make it. Hard Spun has really never been out of training since last year.
Street Sense and AGS have been handled in the more modern conservative fashion, but both have been fairly active all year and are still firing big also.
One thing that needs to be considered is that many of the top modern trainers "believe" that fewer starts and more time between races lead to more consistent performance. So the number of starts had to go down regardless of the soundness issue. Even if they are correct about the consistency and peak performance aspect of this, no one has demonstrated that more time and fewer races is the best way to earn the most money or maximize the chances of a horse getting black type.